Texas A&M Football, 2026 Season, First Game

 For a significant assortment of reasons, I've mostly ignored my collected blog family since the latter months of last year. Old habits are difficult to abandon, and I've typed a lot of words about Texas A&M / college football in more than 300 posts so far, and I'm resuming that particular activity with the first 2026 season game tomorrow.

The game will be played against Missouri State at Kyle Field, will begin around 6:00 PM CT on ESPN, and A&M is a 40 1/2-point favorite. College Football News is expecting this to be a 9-3 season for the Aggies, with the losses coming against LSU, Oklahoma and Texas U. (some things never change around Texas A&M). 

College Football News predicts the Aggies will cover the point spread with a 48-7 win at home. In football, Texas A&M is almost as predictable as Lardbucket has been as the worst precedent (sic) ever in American history.

Update added 9:34 AM Sunday: The Aggie performance in the first half of the game wasn't immaculate, but Missouri State was still behind 19-0 at halftime. It was fairly obvious that A&M would probably remain in the lead, so we watched an old Inspector Lewis episode on DVD instead of the football game. Sure enough, the Aggies led in total offensive yardage 505-67 and won the game 50-0. Missouri State will probably end up being the easiest home game A&M will play in 2026.

Regime Change Now Necessary

 For reasons that are too complicated to explain or comprehend, one of the greatest nations in the world is being destroyed by a mentally ill fool whose fame and popularity are the result of his performance as host of a TV reality game show years ago. He wasn't elected on the basis of any qualifying degree(s) of intelligence, experience, political skill, or knowledge. He's obsessed with the goal of regime change in Iran and there are probably other nations he's fantasizing about too.

Considering that this waste of pigeon manure hasn't effectively performed any duties of his office (and has completely refused to comply with all standards of the oath of office he's taken twice), we've now reached the point of needing comprehensive regime change in the USA. 

If we can't do this for ourselves, maybe our democratic allies in other nations will take leadership responsibility for making all the regime changes needed urgently in USA.

College Football 2025: (Game Thirteen, Failure)

 The first eleven games of this season, Texas A&M played poorly sometimes and extremely well at other times and managed to win all eleven games. Then came the trip to Texas U in Austin, and things fell apart. Today, the Aggies hosted Miami in their first CFP game on ABC/ESPN.

Tenth-ranked Miami (10-2) was a 3 1/2 point underdog to seventh-ranked A&M (11-1), but College Football News predicted the Aggies would lose 27-24 at home. The final score was 10-3, with the Hurricanes taking advantage of various failures by the Aggies late in the 4th quarter.

So much for all those dreams. 

College Football 2025: Twelfth Game (Texas U)

In the old days, the most important part of the Thanksgiving holiday was the annual rivalry game matching Texas A&M against Texas University. I saw a few of those games when I was still in public school and the Aggies were the home team. After I was attending Texas A&M, I saw the game every year since it was required among Corps members. Traditionally, Texas U has been better than Texas A&M (the Aggie record against Texas U is a sad 37-77).

The annual game was suspended when A&M left the Big 12 for the SEC West, but t.u. had to follow the Aggies to the SEC, starting last season. The next game as SEC rivals will be played in Austin tomorrow at 6:30 PM Central on ABC. The Aggies (11-0) are favored by 2.5 points against Texas U (8-3). The Aggies are unbeaten and the longhorns lost to Ohio State (14-7), Florida (29-21), and Georgia (35-10). 

College Football News has predicted t.u. will win 27-24. That's enough to make me nauseated, but I'll probably watch as long as A&M can gain and maintain a lead on the scoreboard.

Updated 11:04 PM Friday 11/28: it's very unfortunate that an A&M football season as good as this one had to finish with a 27-17 loss to Texas U in Austin. 

College Football 2025: Eleventh Game (Samford)

 It's almost impossible to build up enthusiasm for a game like this: Texas A&M (10-0) will be hosting Samford (1-10) as an over-50 point favorite. College Football News predicts the Aggies will win 52-0. I watched some of the game on my laptop to kill time, and A&M won 48-0. The next game against Texas U in Austin won't be as easy as the one this afternoon.

College Football 2025: Tenth Game (South Carolina)

I lost track of time, and should have had this opinion written by noon yesterday. Texas A&M hosts South Carolina at Kyle Field on ESPN today at 11:00 AM Central. The Aggies are unbeaten and the Gamecocks are 3-6. A&M is favored by 16 1/2 or 19 1/2 points, depending on where you're checking the spread. The Aggies have been playing the Gamecocks since moving to the SEC, and have a 9-2 winning record, with both losses at South Carolina, including a 44-20 beating last season.

It's not easy to predict an upset loss at home for A&M today, and College Football News predicts a 34-14 win for the Aggies. 

Update 12:54 PM Saturday: So far, the game's been a humiliating exhibition of unprepared A&M offense and defense (missed field goals, poor tackling, dropped passes and poor pass protection). South Carolina is ahead 30-3 at halftime, largely due to A&M's embarrassing performance. This kind of stuff is the reason so many of us suffer from BAS. It will be impossible for A&M to win this game without a ton of mistakes by the Gamecocks in the second half. I won't be watching.

Final update 3:18 PM Saturday:  The second half resumed with A&M trailing 30-3 on the scoreboard, but somehow, Mike Elko has a gift for encouraging comebacks. I wasn't watching the game when it happened, but the Aggies put together enough sensational plays to pull ahead 31-30 and the team found a way to hold their one-point lead for the rest of the game, and now has a 10-0 season W/L record.

College Football 2025: Ninth Game (Missouri)

Strange as it seems, Texas A&M's football team has been unbeatable (8-0) this season, It doesn't matter who they play, where they play, or how they play, they haven't lost any game so far this season. 

After an open date last weekend, the Aggies are back on the road to play Missouri on ABC at 2:30 PM this afternoon. A&M's all-time record against Missouri is 10-7, with most of the games played against them as Big 12 and SEC rivals. The Aggies lead 3-2 in SEC games, and are 1-1 in SEC road games. In today's match-up, Mizzou (6-2) is a 6.5 point underdog, with earlier losses against Alabama (27-24) and Vanderbilt (17-10). College Football News has predicted the Aggies will win 26-20 on the road today. I've hated Missouri since the Big 12 days and their simultaneous relocation to the SEC with A&M in 2012. Kicking their butts on their home field would be nice.

Updated 6:21 PM Saturday: It wasn't a game with flawless execution, but Texas A&M made enough exciting plays on offense, defense and special teams to give Missouri a 38-17 beating.  

College Football 2025: Eighth Game (LSU)

The Texas A&M Aggies are having one of their best seasons since joining the SEC West in 2012. The team has played a fairly respectable schedule, and is undefeated although without any blowout wins so far. The season continues tomorrow with a road game against LSU (5-2). The game is scheduled to start on ABC at 6:30 PM Central. Since A&M started playing LSU as a division rival in conference games, the Aggies have won only four, all at home on Kyle Field (2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024). LSU has won every SEC West game as the home team in Baton Rouge, and they are 2 1/2  point favorites tomorrow, despite two losses (Ole Miss 24-19 and Vanderbilt 31-24). College Football News has posted a predicted LSU win (26-23). My concern is that Texas A&M must play much better than they have in most of the games they've won so far to remain unbeaten. That means no penalties or turnovers giving LSU easy touchdowns.

Updated 10:50 PM Saturday 10/25: Kevin Sumlin wasn't the answer. Jimbo Fisher definitely wasn't the answer. Tonight, Texas A&M gave LSU a butt-kicking (49-25) at Baton Rouge, so maybe Mike Elko is the answer. The Aggies had some penalties, a blocked punt for a safety and a few other turnover problems, but for most of the game, they performed well.